Nicoise Salad

April 27, 2010

Lettuce

Poor Peter Rabbit! He had a really close call in Mr. McGregor’s garden, and yet, in the classic tale by Beatrix Potter, the naughty bunny actually did make off with some prize produce.

What did the animal feast on first?

The lettuce.

It makes sense. When it comes to lettuce, whether it’s crisp Romaine, delicate Bibb, sweet Oakleaf or any other variety, the first leafy nibble is a refreshing crunch that sends sprinkles of moisture onto your tongue. It’s also an immediate reminder that summer and sunshine are back for awhile.

That was one smart rabbit.

Most of us are not fortunate enough to have our own lettuce garden – or neighbors that do. But whether we buy our produce in a supermarket, greengrocer or, if we’re lucky, at a local farmer’s market, fresh lettuce is one of warm weather’s greatest pleasures not merely for its taste and texture but because you can use it in more ways that you might think and all of them are the kind of quick and easy recipes that make summer cooking less stressful.

Look around the produce sections and you’ll see immediately that there are a variety of lettuces at our disposal. Not all the greens are lettuce of course, though some, such as chicory and endive, are botanical relatives. True lettuce, a descendant of a weed of western Asia, exudes a milky juice when you crush the leaf. In fact the word lettuce comes from the Latin word lactuca, which means milk. There are five basic lettuce types although Stem lettuce is difficult to come by except in Asian produce markets.

The other four include:

Butterheads: have soft, cup-shaped leaves and look like large, floppy green roses. These are the aristocrats of the lettuce family, which includes Boston and the smaller, darker-leafed Bibb. Butterheads are tender and sweet and they need restrained treatment. For starter salads, add a cutting of creamy cheese – St. Andre, Explorateur or other triple crème or even a scoop of fresh ricotta or pot cheese. Add fresh cut-up pear to that salad or include cut-up cooked asparagus spears, artichoke heart, avocado chunks, peas, jicama or chick peas. As a lunch meal, this variety of lettuce pairs well with shrimp and chicken.

Butterhead salads are not the place for bold dressings made with Balsamic vinegar or heavy on herbs. Use a delicate vinaigrette made with fruity oils (olive, avocado, hazelnut, almond) and lemon juice or champagne vinegar, even a few drops of honey or orange juice to sweeten the taste a bit or a tiny amount of crushed, crystallized ginger to surprise the palate.

While it’s easiest to use Butterhead lettuce leaves in a salad, its delicate flavor makes it a surprisingly fine starting point for soup.

Cos: are cylindrically shaped and have dark, elongated leaves; the best known is Romaine. The leaves are bold and sharp tasting so they’re typically partnered with other strong foods in robust salads including Caesar, with its pungent anchovies and garlicky croutons, and Nicoise, with tangy tunafish, capers and olives. But other good Romaine salad ingredients are cooked black beans, red onion, broccoli, sharp cheeses such as cheddar, gorgonzola or chevre, as well as walnuts, radish, smoked tofu, bell peppers and grilled beef or lamb.

Cos salads can stand up to bold dressings too: here’s the place to use full-flavored red wine or Balsamic vinegars, fresh chopped herbs, pomegranate juice, tahini, garlic, crisped bacon or pancetta or grated Parmesan cheese.

Crispheads: have firm, compact heads with pale green, crisp leaves; Iceberg is the most familiar. Although it lacks the delicate flavor of a Butterhead and the robust taste of a Cos, no other lettuce variety can match its crunchy, refreshing texture, making Iceberg unsurpassed for sandwiches as well as certain kinds of salads. It has plenty of other virtues too. First, it is so versatile that it combines well with hearty ingredients such as sun dried tomatoes or blue cheese and also delicate ones such as potatoes and carrots in addition to all the common, garden-variety items like cucumber, tomato, scallion, arugula, watercress and so on. Second, you can find Iceberg everywhere and it isn’t prohibitively expensive. Then again, you can cloak it with almost any kind of dressing you like, from robust Gorgonzola or mustardy-vinaigrette to spicy Thousand Island to sweetish lemon-poppy-honey dressing.

There’s more. Iceberg is so adaptable you can cook it – briefly. Shred it up and stir-fry it when you need a quick and out of the ordinary side dish with dinner. You’ll need just a small amount of olive oil: first flavor the heated oil with 2-3 large chopped cloves of garlic, 4-5 dried hot chili peppers and about a teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorns, add the shreds and stir fry for a minute or so, just to wilt them slightly and toss about the flavoring items.

Leaf lettuce: has broad, curly-edged reddish-purple or green leaves that grow in loose clusters rather than in tight heads. All leaf lettuces are sweet and soft, though not quite as delicate as Bibb or Boston. They are perfect for summer salads dressed with a mild vinaigrette and perhaps a few shredded carrots, avocado chunks and mild cheeses such as mozzarella. Yet leaf lettuce salads can stand some verve too. That means you can embolden a bowl of leaf lettuce with radicchio, chicory and arugula or include a few unusual items such as grapes and cashew nuts or orange sections and grilled scallops or Brie cheese and cooked salmon. The choices for dressing are fairly considerable too: creamy vinaigrettes or a cheesy one, mild or bold; use olive oil or a nut oil (such as hazelnut or walnut) and red, white or sherry wine vinegar, Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice.

Leaf and Butterhead lettuces are more fragile than the others, so eat them within a day or so after you get them home. Romaine and Iceberg will last several days longer. Wash all lettuce leaves carefully and dry them before pouring dressing on top – a good salad spinner is mighty handy for this job.